Last Tycoons


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Hardcover
742 pages
ISBN 9780385514514 Published April 2007
Doubleday Books
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Last Tycoons
The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.
By William D Cohan 

Related Blog Posts
Book Review Roundup
Posted July 25, 2008 9:30 a.m. by dylan
In Uncategorized - 800 CEO Read Blog

It's been almost a month since we last looked at what books the major business magazines are reviewing, so it's about time for another look.

First up, we have The Economist. The July 19th issue has a great review of A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein. This is a book that I've wanted to read since its release in April, and this review has only heightened my interest. I always love books that step back, that give us historical perspective and make us realize that, as unique an era as we live in, global trade and the debate it spawns are not unique to our times. The following paragraph compelled me to pull the book off of one of our many shelves and throw it in my bag for reading this weekend:

With an ability to switch gracefully from the macro to the micro, Mr Bernstein whisks his reader on a tumultuous journey. Along the way, it takes in the Pax Islamica established in the Mediterranean by the heirs of the Prophet Muhammad (a trader by profession himself); the rise and decline of Venice and Genoa; the devastation caused by the Black Death; the Portuguese-led age of discovery; the establishment of the great Dutch and British East India trading companies; the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade; the campaign (that led, among other things, to the founding of this newspaper) to abolish the Corn Laws; the golden period of the late 19th century in which trade flourished under the benign wing of the British empire; and the 20th century's descent into beggar-my-neighbour protectionism.

Rebecca linked to a BusinessWeek review of this book in June, and you can find that post here.

The July 12th-18th issue of The Economist reviews three books looking at the mortgage crisis and credit crunch that resulted: The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in Market Has Cost Us Our Future by Larry Elliot and Dan Atkinson, The Credit Crunch: Housing Bubbles, Globalisation and the Worldwide Economic Crisis by Graham Turner, and The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crunch of 2008 and What It Means by George Soros. The article begins:

Almost a year has passed since the credit crunch burst into the public consciousness. As the publishing industry finally lumbers into action, authors are attempting, like real-life Hercule Poirots, to assemble the suspects in the library and identify the guilty party.

As you may be able to tell from the tone above, The Economist doesn't come off as a big believer in these books, and the article itself eventually dismisses the remedies they contain, stating: "All three books expect more regulation of the financial system, which will inevitably have perverse consequences." Unfortunately, there is not a very convincing argument following up that assertion.

It's an assertion Roger Lowenstein would disagree with. In his review of Charles Morris's The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash in the August issue of Conde Nast Portfolio, he writes:

...Morris says loan originators should be made to share in any eventual losses suffered by retail lenders and others down the line. After a quarter-century of deregulation, he sensibly concludes, "it's time for the pendulum to swing in the other direction."

Though he writes that Morris's "book does not have the finished quality of his previous The Cost of Good Intentions, he does believe that it "is a good first take on the mortgage debacle, and it sets forth some astute policy prescriptions."

Lowenstein reviews another book in this article, Greenspan's Bubble's: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve by William A. Fleckenstein. It seems he's not as big a fan of this title.

Fleckenstein's thesis--that Greenspan "wasn't the only reason there was a bubble, but without his sponsorship it could never have grown anywhere near as large or as dangerous as it did"--is fair. Otherwise, his book is almost a smear.

In the July 28 Issue of BusinessWeek, Steve Hamm champions Richard J Elkus Jr.'s Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations. The most entertaining snippet from that review:

The book is certainly timely. Wall Street's latest "innovations" are crumbling, and America's immense appetite for overconsumption seems finally to be slaked. So, with what raw material will we build the economy of the future? Probably not social-networking Web sites.

BusinessWeek's Hardy Green has a plethora of book recommendations in the issue of July 14 & 21, many that we'd agree with. In fact, Robert H Frank's The Economic Naturalist was a runner up in the Finance & Economics category of our first annual 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards, and The Last Tycoons (William D. Cohan) and In Spite of the Gods (Edward Luce) won their categories--Industry and New Perspectives respectively. Other suggestions are In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak, How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, Discover Your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen, Christopher Buckley's Boomsday and Julia Flynn Siler's The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty.

And, if you're interested in wine or the wine business, Fortune looks at the industry by looking at three other books on the topic: The Battle for Wine and Love by Alice Feiring, Grape vs. Grain by Charles Bamforth and The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace.

Unfortunatley, I can't find that Fortune review online, but hey, it's the weekend... you should be drinking wine, not reading about it.

Have a great weekend everyone!



2007 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards announced today
Posted Jan. 15, 2008 3:05 a.m. by katie
In Book Awards - 800 CEO Read Blog

The day has finally arrived. After careful consideration, the winners have been determined for our first annual Business Book Awards. Nearly 300 titles were submitted which were then critiqued and reviewed by our editorial staff. A list of 13 titles make up the winners for each category as well as the Best Business Book of 2007.

8cr would like to congratulate all the winners for their hard work and say thank you to all who participated in our first awards program!

Best Business Book of 2007


Made to Stick
Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Category Winners

Advertising/Marketing:
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Random House

Biographies/Memoirs:
Bill & Dave by Michael S. Malone, Portfolio

Entrepreneurship/Small Business:
No Man's Land by Doug Tatum, Portfolio

Fables:
The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly, Hyperion

Finance/Economics:
A Demon of Our Own Design by Richard Bookstaber, Wiley

Globalization:
The Elephant and the Dragon by Robyn Meredith, W.W. Norton

HR/Organizational Development:
One Foot Out the Door by Judith M. Bardwick, PhD., AMACOM

Industry:
The Last Tycoons by William D. Cohan, Doubleday

Innovation/Creativity:
Group Genius by Keith Sawyer, Basic Books

Leadership:
The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning, Jossey-Bass

New Perspectives:
In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce, Doubleday

Personal Development:
Responsibility at Work by Howard Gardner, Jossey-Bass

Sales:
The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes, Portfolio

: : : :

Congratulations! You can find the full list here.



Love the lists
Posted Dec. 19, 2007 1:36 a.m. by kate
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog

Gotta love this time of year. Lots of lists. As is true in business book publishing. Let me catch you up on the last few weeks of lists. This week we announced the semifinalists for our first ever 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. There are the best books according to the Amazon editors. And BusinessWeek's choice picks. Books written by Economist writers.

And, now we have the best books as chosen by the Economist. You'll find a number of duplicate titles on the various lists. The business titles from the Economist lists are:

Find the entire list here.

*Starred books are in the running for our 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards which will be announced on January 15th.



2007 Best Business Book Awards: Semifinalists and Shortlist announced today
Posted Dec. 17, 2007 4:09 a.m. by katie
In Book Awards - 800 CEO Read Blog

After nearly 300 submissions and weeks of intense reading, the 8cr editorial staff has narrowed down the top titles to be considered as the best in 13 categories for the first 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards.

The shortlist for the Best Business Book of 2007 was also announced which includes:


The Dream Manager
Matthew Kelly


The Last Tycoons
William D. Cohan


Made to Stick
Chip and Dan Heath


Strengths Finder 2.0
Tom Rath

Final winners for the will be announced on January 15, 2008. To view the complete list of semifinalists and shortlist please visit www.800ceoread.com/bookawards



Another List
Posted Dec. 13, 2007 9:36 a.m. by dylan
In Uncategorized - 800 CEO Read Blog

Rebecca pointed us all to Amazon's Best Books of 2007 last month, and in light of all the other lists coming out lately, I thought it'd be a good idea to revisit that list and highlight the business titles on it. There were three business categories--Business, Business Narratives, and Finance & Investing. So without further ado, the choice of Amazon's editors were...

Business:

*1-The Future of Management by Gary Hamel with Bill Breen

*2-Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip & Dan Heath

*3-The Leadership Challenge (4th Edition) by James M. Kouzes

*4-The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun

*5-Off-ramps and On-ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

*6-We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business by Barry Libert & John Spector

*7-The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees) by Patrick M. Lencioni

*8-Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't by Ram Charan

*9-Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want by James H. Gilmore & Joseph B Pine II

*10-Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose by

Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe & Jag Sheth

Business Narratives:

*1-The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan

*2-The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. by William D. Cohan

*3-The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

*4-The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun

*5-A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World by Gregory Clark

*6-Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich by Robert Frank

*7-Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams

*8-Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston

*9-The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

*10-All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make--and Spend--Their Fortunes by Peter W. Bernstein & Annalyn Swan

Finance & Investing:

*1-The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns by John C. Bogle

*2-Invest Like a Shark: How a Deaf Guy with No Job and Limited Capital Made a Fortune Investing in the Stock Market by James "RevShark" DePorre

*3-Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry Swedroe's Tales to Enrich Your Future by Larry Swedroe

*4-Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich by Jason Zweig

*5-Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning by Katherine Burton

*6-Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics by William Bonner & Lila Rajiva

*7-Bonds: The Unbeaten Path to Secure Investment Growth by Hildy Richelson & Stan Richelson

*8-Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse by Peter D. Schiff with John Downes

*9-A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation by Richard Bookstaber

*10-The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

Wikinomics also made the list in the Computers & Internet category, as did David Weinberger's excellent book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. The Age of Turbulence and The Shock Doctrine made the list in multiple categories, both making the Current Events list and The Age of Turbulence making the Memoirs list as well. The Black Swan also got the nod in Nonfiction.

And don't forget to check back Monday to see who made the shortlist for our first annual 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards.






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